Nick Gibb: The profession has told me that coming to academy status does the opposite—it encourages the profession in a way that has not happened in the past. We have the highest number of teachers of all time  in our schools—45,000, which is 13,000 more than in 2010. The National Audit Office acknowledged that despite the very large increase in numbers of pupils, by 9% in the past few years, the number of teachers has kept pace. In terms of retention, 90% of teachers are still teaching one year after qualifying, 70% are still there after five years, and over half of all teachers are still in teaching 18 years after qualification. These figures are broadly in line with those in other professions.